Fresno County, California Biographies
Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)
History By Paul E. Vandor
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
A. W. BEESEMYER. � A successful farmer, enjoying an enviable repu-
tation for his up-to-date methods, and who has installed one of the best pump-
ing plants in the county, is A. W. Beesemyer, a native son born in what is
now Hollywood, a delightful suburb of Los Angeles, on December 8, 1882.
His father was born in Missouri, and about fifty years ago came to California,
the son of a Union Army veteran, who was killed during the Civil War. The
father, William Beesemyer, was foreman in Spreckels' sugar factory until he
came to Southern California, and then he bought land on the present site of
Hollywood. He raised grain and hay, and later sold his property as an addi-
tion to Hollywood, most of which was known as the Le Mona Tract. He still
owns forty acres there, on which he resides. He had married Sophia Gallwas,
a native of Indiana, and of this union, five boys and two girls were born, all of
whom are still living.
Brought up in Southern California, A. W. Beesemyer attended the public
schools and the Throop Polytechnic in Pasadena, where he pursued a
mechanic's course of study. For four years he was superintendent of streets
in Hollywood, and had much to do with the beginning of improvements after
the town was incorporated, holding the office until Hollywood was annexed
to Los Angeles. Then he became a general contractor in Hollywood and Los
Angeles, and did all of the Los Angeles Pacific work in his locality. He went
to Bakersfield for the same company for three years, and became a general
contractor of Southern Pacific work there. Wherever he established himself,
he made a record and reputation that was capital itself.
In 1913 he came to Fresno County and bought 240 acres of land, located
on it, and improved it by leveling and checking. He installed a pumping-
plant, and provided the electric power for it. He sunk two wells, one to the
depth of one hundred feet, and the other to twice that depth, which bring
water to within fifteen feet of the surface, affording a capacity of 2,000 gal-
lons a minute. His ranch is also under the ditch, so that he has practically
perfect irrigation � an evidence in itself of his thoroughness. He set out
twenty-five acres in Thompson seedless grapes, and sold that tract ; and has
the rest in alfalfa and grain, getting two crops of each a year. After selling
more of the land, he still has twenty-five acres, the finest ranch land in the
district. He belongs to the California Alfalfa Growers' Association, and is
energetic in support of its cooperative endeavors.
Mr. Beesemyer was married in Los Angeles to Miss Franziska Boehncke,
a native of Germany, who crossed the ocean to the United States with her
parents when she was six years of age, and later came west to California.
One child has blessed this union, Artye Dorthy.
The principles of the Republican party have appealed most to Mr. Beese-
myer in matters of national politics, and a Republican he has remained
through the trying ordeals of the nation. First and foremost, however, he
has been and is an American, while in local movements designed to uplift
the community, he has known no party distinction, and has always tried to
support the best men and the best measures.